Greta Gerwig on the set of "Barbie". Photo by Jaap Buitendijk for Warner Bros.
The Directors Guild of America has announced their nominations for the film year just passed. They are:
OUTSTANDING DIRECTING ACHIEVEMENT, THEATRICAL FEATURE FILM
- Greta Gerwig, Barbie (2nd DGA nod)
- Yorgos Lanthimos, Poor Things (1st DGA nod)
- Christopher Nolan, Oppenheimer (5th DGA nod)
- Alexander Payne, The Holdovers (3rd DGA nod)
- Martin Scorsese, Killers of the Flower Moon (13th DGA nods in various categories, 2 previous wins, + 1 Lifetime Achievement Award)
In short, the Best Picture frontrunners! All five of these films are locked up now in Oscar's headline category. It reminds us of ye olden times when armchair pundits knew that the DGA choices were more predictive of the eventual Best Picture nominees (back then more nail-biting with only five choices) than Oscar's Best Director lineup. Old factoids like that have vanished in the modern era when every film with considerable buzz ends up in the Best Picture lineup. But it's fun to think back on, especially in light of these choices...
The distant memory of that old truth makes us wonder if Maestro, Past Lives, The Zone of Interest, and American Fiction are going to have a rougher Oscar nomination morning than many expect. Or maybe it doesn't matter in the end since Best Picture is ten-wide and they'll all make it and receive other key nominations, too.
All five of the DGA choices are past Oscar nominees but only Scorsese is a previous winner for his directing. Could this shortlist repeat on nomination morning in Best Director? Sure! Will it? Probably not. The Academy's much smaller director branch tends to be slightly more daring and idiosyncratic than the large mainstream DGA. In other words Celine Song, Jonathan Glazer, or Cord Jefferson might still crash the party. That said, I'm guessing it's curtains for Bradley Cooper in Best Director. He was arguably more likely to show up here than at the Oscars since the directing branch there ignored him last time (A Star is Born). Looks like I'll have to change my predictions but I'm keeping Glazer in there.
Long shots that were fun to dream about but aren't happening at this point are Cannes winner Tran Anh Hung (The Taste of Things), JA Bayona (Society of the Snow) -- neither of those two films took off in the way they might have in another year -- and Todd Haynes (May December). Regarding the latter, whatever one thinks of May December, it's shameful that Haynes has never been nominated for his directing from his peers in the Academy or in the Guild. Shameful given his inventive exciting evolving filmography!
OUTSTANDING DIRECTING ACHIEVEMENT, FIRST TIME THEATRICAL FEATURE FILM
- Cord Jefferson, American Fiction
- Manuel Martelli, Chile '76
- Noora Niasari, Shayda
- AV Rockwell, A Thousand and One
- Celine Song, Past Lives
The debut category is noticeable for being 80% women and mostly filmmakers of color. Cord Jefferson and Celine Song both have a chance of crashing the Best Director party at the Oscars, though they don't feel probable exactly. Or perhaps you have more faith than I in one of those two pictures overperforming on nomination morning.
PREVIOUSLY ANNOUNCED NOMINATIONS IF YOU MISSED THEM 'ROUND THE WEB
OUTSTANDING DIRECTING ACHIEVEMENT IN DOCUMENTARY
- Moses Bwayo & Christopher Sharp - Bobi Wine: The People's President
- Mstyslav Chernov - 20 Days in Mariupol
- Madeleine Gavin - Beyond Utopia
- Davis Guggenheim - Still: A Michael J Fox Movie
- D Smith - Kokomo City
All but the lauded Kokomo City made the Documentary longlist for Best Documentary Feature at the Oscars. But how clear of a shot do they each have at making the five-wide list?
DIRECTING, DRAMATIC SERIES
- Peter Hoar, The Last of US "Long Long Time"
- Becky Martin, Succession "Rehearsal"
- Mark Mylod, Succession, "Connor's Wedding"
- Andrij Parekh, Succession, "America Decides"
- Robert Pulcini & Shari Springer Berman, Succession, "Tailgate Party"
TV awards have always had the 'duller than movie awards by their repetitive nature' problem but that's especially true in writing and directing categories where it's fairly regular for one series to hog nearly a whole category. Listen Succession is a brilliant show but pretending it's the only good thing on TV gets tiresome.
DIRECTING, COMEDY SERIES
- Erica Dunton, Ted Lasso "La Locker Room Aux Folles"
- Bill Hader, Barry "wow"
- Declan Lowney, Ted Lasso "So Long, Farewell"
- Christopher Storer, The Bear "Fishes"
- Ramy Youssef, The Bear "Honeydew"
DIRECTING, MOVIES FOR TELEVISION OR LIMITED SERIES
- Shawn Levy, All the Light We Cannot See (full series)
- Tara Miele, Lessons in Chemistry "Introduction to Chemistry"
- Millicent Shelton, Lessons in Chemistry, "Poirot"
- Sarah Adina Smith, Lessons in Chemistry, "Her and Him"
- Nzingha Stewart, Daisy Jones & The Six, "Track 10: Rock 'n' Roll Suicide"
Another messy category in which you can be nominated for individual episodes or whole series!
DIRECTING, VARIETY/TALK/NEWS/SPORTS - REGULARLY SCHEDULED PROGRAMMING
- Paul G Casey, Real Time with Bill Maher, "Episode 2117"
- Jim Hoskinson, The Late Show with Steven Colbert, "Jan 19, 2023: Rep Adam Kinzinger: Meet me at the Altar"
- Michael Mancini & Liz Patrick, Saturday Night Live "Pedro Pascal / Coldplay"
- David Paul Meyer, The Daily Show "Singer Charley Crockett Performas "Name on a Billboard" and DIscusses New Album with Jordan Klepper"
- Paul Pennolino, Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, "Episode 1018: Dollar Stores"
DIRECTING, VARIETY/TALK/NEWS/SPORTS - SPECIALS
- Joel Gallen, Chris Rock: Selective Outrage
- Stan Lathan, Dave Chappelle" The Dreamer
- Linda Mendoza, Wanda Sykes: I'm An Entertainer
- Paul Miller, Carol Burnett: 90 Years of Laughter + Love"
- Glenn Weiss, the 95th Academy Awards
DIRECTING, REALITY PROGRAMS
- Niharika Desai, Rainn Wilson & the Geography of Bliss, "Happiness is a Bottle of Cod Liver Oil"
- Ken Fuchs, The Golden Bachelor, "Premiere"
- Joseph Guidry & ALexandra Lipsitz Project Greenlight a New Generation "PGL vs Gray Matter Problem"
- Rich Kim, Lego Masters "Is It Brick?"
- Patrick McManus, American Ninja Warrior, "Season 15 Finale"
DIRECTING, CHILDREN'S PROGRAM
- James Bobin, Percy Jackson and the Olympians "I Accidentally Vaporized My Pre-Algebra Teacher"
- Destin Daniel Cretton, American Born Chinese "What Guy Are You"
- Rob Letterman, Goosebumps "Say Cheese and Die"
- Amy Schatz, Stand Up & Shout: Songs from a Philly High School
- Dinh Thai, American Born Chinese "A Monkey on a Quest"
I tried with American Born Chinese and Percy Jackson both of which are the kind of comfort food genre tv I always end up sampling but I just couldn't get into them. Too off the rack for me -- where is the personality?
DIRECTING, COMMERCIALS
- Martin de Thurah Fair Exchange and Legends Never Die, Levi's 501 Jeans
- Seb Edwards, Rumble, Battle of the Baddest
- Kim Gehrig, Run This Town, Apple Music and The Travelers, Expedia
- Craig Gillespie, Waiting Room, Apple iPhone
- Andreas Nilsson, RIP Leon and Action Mode, Apple iPhone and Choose Happy, Les Mills Fitness and Wait'll You See This, Snapchat
We really don't understand how this particular category works with some directors being nominated for one commercial, others for multiple in a series, and others for multiple unrelated commercials!